The Etiquette of Craft Service, or How to Eat Tons of Free Food on Film Sets Without Annoying A-Listers

Here at Bon Appétit we're as excited as anyone about the Academy Awards: the movies! the red carpet! the parties! But our excitement pales in comparison to that of our freelance contributor, Rachel Friedman, who emailed us almost the second the nominations were out with ideas for stories to run. Here's one of them:

One underemployed summer in my mid-twenties, I spent a day as an extra on a short-lived TV show. The experience was mostly an exercise in waiting around for 14 hours, but oh the food! It was everywhere, meals segueing into snacks that turned back into more meals. The nonstop food parade was key for keeping everyone on set (relatively) sane during the long shoot. I quickly learned, however, that there is a definite etiquette to indulging. Here’s the scoop, from showbiz folks who know.

The Hierarchy

Usually a production assistant makes a to-go box for the director and main actors (whoever is too busy to go get their own food). The next to eat are assistant directors, lighting, and other crew—production assistants are last on the totem pole for production. Then SAG (union) background actors make the line, and non-union are last to eat. It's an open buffet, so you can eat as much as you want. —Christina Rosado, former casting agent

Craft Service vs. Catering

On major productions a catering company provides sit-down meals every six hours while craft services—know as “crafty”—are the folks who make sure the crew doesn't go hungry between meals. They are ready right after the catered breakfast. The morning setup is generally coffee and tea, fresh veggies and fruit, doughnuts and cakes. The producers and wardrobe department often sway the general healthiness of these options. Crafty brings a mid-morning snack to set known as "Sandwich O'Clock." After lunch, the table is miraculously stocked with cookies, chocolates, crackers and cheese, mints, and more fresh fruit and veggies. A few hours later and we’ve got more food coming... Pizza! Empanadas! Taco bar! The crafty table is like the office water cooler. People gather there and socialize. Sometimes you go there just to look even though you know it isn’t any different than the last time you went. —Marlon Small, production assistant

What the Pros Know

The shoot day can start at any time, so whenever your call is, that's basically breakfast. In the morning you usually have a truck making eggs and bacon, omelets, French toast… It can get pretty elaborate depending on the type/budget of shoot. Lunch is 30 minutes and is catered buffet-style and usually consists of a meat dish, a vegetable, a starch, and a seafood option. If you see a good dessert, grab it first—that's the first thing to go. As an actor you sometimes have to eat while getting makeup done, which makes everyone mad, so show up early. —Dan Bittner, actor

The Hard-Knock Non-Union Life

Craft-service snack tables are where you get the good stuff, and they are usually only for union members, no matter how high or low on the chain they are. For us non-union actors, this table is a source of great temptation. I almost always sneak food from it, which isn’t hard to do because it’s not like we’re walking around with stickers on that proclaim who is union and who is non-union. The crew and main actors don’t really care, but the background “actors”—who are union—almost always give us the stink eye. —Jaclyn Kulchinsky, actor

Helpful Tips from the People Who Feed You

Please, please, please, just let us set our food/tent/coffee up before you attack. Please don’t call me "Crafty." Let’s learn each other’s names. Really, do you need 6 Kit Kats? Really? Please just take one. We’ll be here all day. —Joseph DeCongilio, chef-owner, Craft Service NYC

At Last: Crazy Demands from Unnamed A-Listers

Let us guffaw at a few on-set food demands from various Celebrities Who Shall Not Be Named: a 2 a.m. request for a $1,000 bottle of Absolut crystal vodka (from where?); 11 raw cashews only (yes, we had to count them); omelets cooked only in brand-new pans; an organic fruit plate made with the same five fruits but displayed five different ways, because sometimes the talent does not like certain fruit touching. —Stacy Adler, owner, Jayse Catering & Y-Cats Craft Service